Fitaloon at MicroShaft

Every time I hear any news about Alex Salmond at the moment he is whinging about something.  It’s like listening to all three of my teenagers on a bad day.

It’s Alex’s belief that despite 80% of Scotland voting against him at the last General Election he somehow now is vastly superior to a Government backed  by 36% of Scotland, not a majority but a good proportion, and more than the 33% he achieved at the Holyrood elections and allows him, for  now, to try and claim he represents the whole of Scotland.

Alex should well remember this when he tries to claim his moral superiority over Cameron and Danny Alexander when they meet him today.

Now he also might look to how the Holyrood government has managed to get by for the past 3 years, with a spirit of cooperation, from many of the parties to allow things like the budget to pass.

Alex is obviously sorely disappointed that his band of 6  MP’s at Westminster, rather than the hoped for 20, have failed to be involved in a “Rainbow” coalition  which  tried so hard to become part of but was rejected almost out-of-hand by the Labour Party, but he should cut the whinging and start to look at this positively.

Scotland has come to the recession late and is now coming out of recession later then most of the rest of the UK, this will need to be noted. The unemployment rate in Scotland has now risen higher than the national average and with the Financial Area still struggling to some extent Scotland can claim it needs some extra support but listening and watching  Salmond at the moment is like watching an Ostrich with its head in the sand.

Salmond has got to come to the realisation, that the whole of the UK is in an utter mess and that the strings have got to be tightened on the previously bottomless Treasury purse. He has the right to demand a good deal for Scotland but he cannot ignore what is going on any longer.

If Alex wants real respect fro Scotland then he has to equally have respect for the UK government to rule. Until he does this he may find that his whinging has no impact on the Liberal Conservative Coalition.

It’s time for Alex to stop whinging and get on  with life after his shocking General Election campaign and results. In many ways he is lucky that his party has not looked hard at what has happened and wondered if he is the right leader now.

BBC News – David Cameron in Scotland to meet SNP’s Alex Salmond.

In all the hoo-haa about Bigotgate this was overshadowed. The SNP must be hopping that the £50,000 they raised to help their case resulted in little or no media attention and even less public exposure. Basically they have pissed the money up against a wall in a failed publicity stunt.

My feeling has always been that the debates shouldn’t be shown in Scotland on Normal (This is not a bigoted comment, honest) TV. If you really wanted to watch them they would be on Free to View channels or the regional channels you can pick up if required. The exclusion of the SNP gives undue advantage to other parties.

Stupidly though the SNP didn’t do this early enough as they tried to use the court case as a publicity event rather than a true attempt to ensure fairness in Scotland. They have paid the price for this, both on the ruling, and on the lack of publicity.

The ruling was as follows:

In her ruling, Lady Smith said the SNP’s demands would lead to

“wholesale disruption”

to the series of debates and would leave viewers with an

“incomplete picture”.

She stated:

“Whether one compares the debates to three rounds of a boxing competition, a three-course meal, a play in three acts or any similar convenient analogy, the planned event that is the series of leadership election debates is now two-thirds of the way through and has, thus far, taken place according to plan.”

The Nationalists are still seeking a judicial review of the decision to hold the debates between the leaders of the three main UK parties, with a two-day hearing due to take place in June.

SNP fails in Scottish court bid to block prime ministerial TV debate – Press & Journal.

During the Defence in the World debate yesterday in Parliament we saw the usual mixture of MP’s attending the debate, a reasonable amount of Conservatives who made a number of speeches, a few Labour MP’s who have big items due up in the Defence Budget , but when we get to the minor parties what do we see, let Andrew Murrison have the first words:

Andrew Murrison (Shadow Minister, Defence; Westbury, Conservative)

It is a pleasure to commence the wind-ups at such an early hour. We have had a series of good contributions-a total of 11 from right across the House-and, although I tend to get rather cynical sometimes, especially after six hours of sitting in the Chamber, I have to say that they have all been of exceptional value. I must add, however, more in sorrow than in anger, that it is a pity that we did not get any Back-Bench contributions from the Liberal Democrats. If they want to be taken seriously on this subject, as on any other, they need to show a bit more interest.

It is particularly good to be debating defence on the Ides of March, perhaps slightly portentously.

Mind you what do you expect from  a party who really don’t know what their policies are. They are a complete waste of space an money.

Second we have the following from Ian Davidson:

Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West, Labour)

Will the hon. Gentleman also recognise that no Members from the Scottish National party are present to make Back-Bench or other contributions? That is also very much to be regretted given the importance of shipbuilding in Scotland.

You might at least have expected Angus Robertson to have something to say considering the importance Defence has to his constituency.

It is a pleasure to commence the…: 15 Mar 2010: House of Commons debates (TheyWorkForYou.com).

The Caley has been taking a bit of a blasting from the SNP, but this article should have them really boiling over. They seem to have a fatal attraction for anything that hints at them not doing so well in the polls.

Surely at some point they will work out they are having the piss taken out of them….

…. The Cal Merc has this:

SOMETIMES you have to wonder whether our political leaders think before they act.

This morning the Scottish Government issued a consultation on – rabbits.

The consultation seeks views on the welfare of rabbits kept as pets. This does not cover the welfare of rabbits farmed for food, oh no, that will doubtless be the subject of something bigger and more substantial.

In the scale of the Scottish Government’s £30 billion budget, it probably doesn’t amount to much more than a hill of lettuce leaves, but the fact that officials believe this is a good thing to be spending money on at this time does seem out of touch, at the very least.

Labour certainly seem to think so.

Ian Davidson, Labour MP for Glasgow South West, said: “I don’t know why lemmings are so concerned about rabbits.
“We are coming out of the worst economic crisis since the Second World War but it seems to have escaped the attention of SNP ministers.
“Their job is to help get people back into work. Instead of cutting teacher numbers or cancelling vital capital investment, they are worrying about rabbits.
“They’ll probably want a referendum on the outcome of their consultation.”

Rabbiting on | Caledonian Mercury – Politics.

SNP Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon urged the public to become “counter-fraud champions” four months after she took up the case of a convicted benefits conman, it emerged on Monday. The video of her speech is here.

So why was she saying a fraudster should not get a custodial sentence, though perhaps she thinks stealing from the NHS, is more important that stealing from us.

In her speech she has this to say:

“Anyone contemplating fraud against the NHS should be aware that they will be caught, and if they are caught, they will have to face the consequences of their fraudulent actions.

“Fraudsters in any walk of life are opportunistic, tend to be fairly entrepreneurial, and will take the opportunity to exploit any weakness in the organisation they target.

“Let me be clear today about what is a zero-tolerance approach to fraud and to fraudsters. Fraud perpetrated against the NHS is, in my view, a fraud perpetrated against each and every one of us and that is why it is so important to combat it.

“So it does make sense for all of us, in our own ways and in our own roles, to act as counter-fraud champions.”

So as a “champion” she urges the courts not to send Abdul Rauf to prison. This must be a new definition of  “Zero Tolerance”.

It remains, that what was likely a  minor error on the part of a one of Sturgeon’s staff has been turned into a major stooshie. She has only herself to blame for this. A little humility and the acceptance of, perhaps, an error could  have turned this into a minor issue. Instead the SNP have turned this into a major story and issue for them in the run up to a General Election.

Nicola Sturgeon lauded anti-fraud measures after taking up Rauf case | Scotland | STV News.